How is the equipment of an early republican legionary?

[Matthew Amt]

If you're looking for Punic War-era Romans, we have literary descriptions, and physical engravings. Principes/Hastati wore the lorica hamata, with large scutum and short swords/javelins. Triarii wore the musculata, with large scutum and 8-10ft spear.

I thought Polybius was pretty specific that armor depended on the soldier's *wealth*, while his position in the line (hastatus, princeps, or triarius) depended on his *age*. So a wealthy hastatus would have mail, while a less wealthy triarius still wore a small pectoral. Before the introduction of mail, my guess is that the muscled cuirass was more common for those who could afford it, but it's hard to say how widespread it was after that point.

Valete,

Matthew

[Cipher]

Do we know when exactly did the Romans started using mails for armor?
Would they have been using it by the 1st Punic war?

[Paullus Scipio]

Do we know when exactly did the Romans started using mails for armor?
Would they have been using it by the 1st Punic war?

Mail was already apparently widespread ( though only for chiefs and other prominent men) in the Celtic world well before 350 BC. As early as 390 BC the Romans had received a "short sharp shock and awe" lesson when the Celts under Brennus sacked Rome. For the next 100 years, the Etruscans and Romans struggle against successive waves of Gallic invaders, until Northern Italy becomes 'Cisalpine Gaul'........
Iconographic evidence shows the Etruscans adopted mail and it is highly likely the Romans did too - and it would therefore be likely to be in widespread use in 265 BC, when the first Punic war began......